Lance is quick to act, getting the fire extinguisher from the wall next to the door and spraying the curtain. He stares at it for a second, looking perplexed, his jaw ticking.

What even happened?! "That's crazy," I say a little shakily. This happened twice now.

"Indeed," Lance says, turning back to me, his eyes rake over me once as if I could have gotten injured. "You'll need to go easy on your feet."

"I'm out of training?" I ask too excitedly. Training with Bo was one thing. Training with dictator Grace is a whole other monster. I'm pretty sure the military would be more than willing to hire her. She took life too serious.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you sprained your ankle on purpose," Lance says, and I smile because I did that once in my old pack.

"I should have thought about it earlier," I joke. The ankle brace tight on my foot.

"Go easy for the next few days or until Raquel comes and can give you a proper diagnosis."

"I'm fine," I brush it off, getting on the floor, and immediate the sting of my ankle makes me wince. Okay, so I'm not fine. "Ouch."

Lance looks like he too is in visible pain and takes a deep breath. "Go easy on it. Stay in bed for a little. Should I carry you to-"

"NOPE," I shake my head vehemently. I already wanted to die when he did pick me up. Not again. Although, it was kind of nice. But still. No. "I need to get it working."

"At least let me help you get to your room," Lance insists. He's trying to make sure I don't die within the next like 200 feet I walk. It's kind of cute.

"Okay," I say nervously, thinking about how I left my room and hoping there's nothing embarrassing laying on the ground. Meg bought some other clothing along with this shirt this morning...

I look at the mirror getting out of the infirmary, and my mouth drops. This shirt gave me really good cleavage, I'd have to admit.

Lance opens my room door for me, and I knew it was a horrible idea for him to see the chaotic tornado that was my room. I quickly try to get in front of Lance, to block him off of having a view of this messiness. Maybe my room being messy is some kind of metaphor for my life.

"It's not usually this messy," I start to say, looking over to make sure nothing like...oh my gosh. Meg. Melissa. I'm going to need to just get hit by a car.

A Victoria's Secret bag I didn't see Meg even bring in the room has fell over, and this red bra that covered in legit silver gems on it- aka a hooker's bra-was plain in sight. And some red thongs to go with it. I nearly choke. Who thought this was a good idea? When will I ever wear something like this?

Lance's head turns to where I momentarily stared in horror, and I impulsively placed my hands on his eyes. "DON'T!" I screech. With my hand still on his eyes, "Close your eyes tightly, and turn around slowly, and pretend you didn't seen anything."

I slowly peel my hand from his eyes, seeing his eyes shut, and his mouth it twitching up. "Slowly turn around. Or fast. The faster, the better actually."

"Alright," Lance's voice is laced in amusement. He turns around a little slow for my liking, but at least my room is out of his line of sight.

"Now just walk away. Act like you've seen nothing, Lance Stryder."

"I've seen nothing," he repeats, making me wonder if he got my TV show reference. He walks forward, and I quickly shut my room, locking it, and turning around to my mess of a room. My ankle hurts too much to clean it right now, but I'm putting the Victoria's Secret bag far into the depths of my closet.

***

I stare at my phone, laying down on my bed per Lance's order, and I accidentally let the phone fall to my face.

Dangit, why does this always happen????

I sit up, and sift through my messages. I haven't heard from Julia in a while, and all Lisa has said is: We're good.

I miss them so much. I miss mom and dad. My sister. And my best friend who might as well be a sister.

I just want to see them and hear their voices.

Julia isn't the type of person to make me worry like this. She's always good about sending me a message on my phone to say she's okay. It's really hard to know what is going on there. If she's okay. The constant worry I have isn't going away.

When I'm stressed out, I either eat a lot or don't eat at all.

I'm currently in the not eating at all phase, and Cook is taking a notice.

"You didn't complain about your iron pill," Cook comments.

I look up from my plate where I was hard in thinking, and I give him a fake smile, "Yeah." I guess I should stop complaining all the time and being dramatic, but I'm just not in the mood. I feel like a zombie right now. I don't know what Lance is going to do with Paxon. I don't even know what I want right now. I'm stuck in this place, and I need to get out. Go somewhere.

"But I also see you haven't eaten anything in your plate," Cook gives me a look of concern. "Is it something you don't like?"

I look down at my plate of grilled chicken, broccoli and some brown rice. He's right, I only took a bite of the chicken- flavorful surprisingly- but that was it.

"Oh no, anything you make is awesome," I shake my head. "I just don't have an appetite."

"Ava, I also noticed you didn't touch your breakfast either. That was 6 hours ago."

"I'm just....stressed," I sigh. First world problems.

"Stressed? Is something or someone bothering you?" Cook asks. "I love Lance like he's my own, but I can beat him up for you if you'd like."

I smile, "It's not him. It's just my friend from my old pack. I'm worried."

"Ah, I see," Cook washed his hands in the sink, "I don't know everything, but I surmised your peculiar predicament. You can have one of the pack members to go there and check up on your family and friends for you."

"I can, can't I?"

"Well you're the Luna," Cook gives me a knowing smile. "You can basically do everything."

Hmm, the thing is, he's right.

***

I barge in Lance's office without knocking. Lance lifts his head up from some paper he was looking at, and our eyes meet. Momentarily forgetting what I wanted to say I let out a small squeaky, "Hey" to him.

"Ava," Lance greets, surprise evident in his voice. He stands up, gesturing to the chairs in front of him. "Please make yourself comfortable."

"I want to talk to you about something," I say before I forget about what I wanted to say, walking towards the nice leather chair in front of his desk. After I sit down, he sits down.

"You could have called me, I don't want your ankle to hurt coming up the stairs," he says. "What is it?" he asks, leaning forward.

"Don't exclude me out of anything dealing with Paxon." This is important because I needed to make sure we got it right. That I got it right. I heard with my own ears who killed his mate, and Paxon deserves to know.

"Okay," Lance agrees.

"Okay?" I ask.

"Okay," Lance repeats, nodding.

"Okay."

"Okay if I hear that word one more time, I'm going to scream," Bo enters the room, looking at us like we're interesting piece of meat. "You guys don't need to be reenacting The Fault in Our Stars." Bo sits at the chair next to me, and leans back, waving both hands together at the back of his head. He looks at both of us expectantly. "Don't stop on my account. This conversation was so interesting."

I roll my eyes. "Or you could stop eavesdropping on us like some animal."

"Technically we are-"

"That reminds me, Bo bear," I say to him sweetly giving him my biggest smile. "I have a request of you."

"Oh?" Bo looks at Lance, and I look at him too. Lance looks interested in what I'm about to say. Hopefully he wouldn't have any objections to this. "I'm not doing anything embarrassing," Bo warns.

"I'm not you," I shoot back. Bo clutches his heart as if I hurt him. "What I want to ask you if of great importance."

"Oh boy," Bo mutters. "This is going to be fun."

"I want you to visit my pack," I tell him, glancing at Lance to see if he approves or not. Not that I care. Bo better do this. "My best friend, Julia, hasn't been answering any of my messages and I'm worried about her. Obviously I can't go, but you can check up on her. Please."

"Since you asked so nicely," Bo grins at me. "Sure thing. I can just say I'm passing by and make up some lame excuse."

"In the meantime, Ava and I can go visit Paxon," Lance says. I swallow. Visiting Paxon was going to be where it would either turn into a crap fest or everything goes smoothly. It was a long thing coming. Whatever storm that is going to brew in for us, we had to be ready.

After I got up, saying a good-bye to Lance, Bo catches up to me by the stairwell. "Wait up, Ava! There's something I've been meaning to tell you."

"Bo, I already asked Lance once today about the pool. I'm trying to keep it a once-a-day-ask-Lance kind of thing," I sigh, looking up at him. Except Bo looks super nervous. Which is so unlike Bo.

"No, no it's not that- even though-" he grins," you still have a pool to pay."

"What's up?" I ask him curiously. He shifts one foot to another.

"It's nothing. I mean it's not nothing, it's something. Something big, and I would hate if you wouldn't know this about me-"

"Just spill. It can't be that bad," I tell him, laughing at how nervous he is. It's making me nervous. What could it be to make Bo nervous? He's some serial killer?

"I mean a Luna's approval is really important, and it's really important because you're important-"

"Bo!"

"I'm gay," Bo spills out hurriedly. He meets my eyes, and I can see him hold his breath.

I burst out laughing.

"A-Ava?" Bo sounds a little hurt. I didn't want him thinking the wrong thing.

"Sorry, no it's just I thought it was something serious. I mean, this is serious, but like something like you're some psychopath," I'm the one babbling now. "That's really cool, Bo. Thanks for telling me. I still love you the same."

Bo's face twists in relief. "Oh, glad to know, you're not, well..."

"Homophobic?" I ask, frowning, wondering if he had to deal with anything like that with anyone close to him. "I'll beat anyone up for you."

"Thanks," Bo chuckles. "I mean it. Thanks."

"Duh," I roll my eyes, "I can't let anyone hurt my Bo bear."

"Don't use Bo bear," Bo groans.

"You would so love it if your mate used it on you," I grin at him. I take a step forward "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" It kind of hurt that he didn't think I would take it well or if he didn't trust me to tell me.

"I don't know," Bo rubs the back of his neck. "I thought it'd change what you think about me."

"Well someone must sure be stupid if being gay changes anything," I say. "You're one really cool cat, er, werewolf."

"You're not so bad yourself,"Bo smiles at me.

I roll my eyes, "I know."

"So humble," Bo admonishes.

"Uh, so am I the only one to know?" I ask.

"Definitely not. Lance was the first one who I told. Cole and Meg know. Just not my...parents," Bo makes a face. I nod. It's important to ask if anyone knows because of stuff like if your family don't know.

"I'm sorry, that must suck," I say sincerely, glad I have a good family. Although I don't know what their reaction would be.

"Grandmother Sebastian wants grand-kids," Bo mutters. "It sucks big time. She keeps on saying it at every family meeting how she can't wait for my pups."

"You can always adopt if you ever want 'em," I shrug. There's not much abandonment of pups, but some wolves would give their children away if they have a child with someone who is not their mate. Those wolves are usually the lone wolves and the runts of the pack. They needed help. "Any pup would be lucky to have you. You were so good with lil Edith."

"Edith," Bo sighs, remembering her. "Miss her."

"Me too," I frown. "It feels like the pack house is so empty without her."

"I know," both Bo and I are thinking of that chubby munchkin baby. "We should visit her soon."

"After you're done doing some werewolf spying for me," I hint.

"That's going to be so much fun. Going to enemy territory."

"If anything happens-"

"I'm kidding they wouldn't do anything to me," Bo shrugs. "I can always lie about where I think you are to them. I get out of dire situations, maybe not always in style, but I make a way. If anything were to ever happen." I don't buy it. Maybe it was a bad idea for him to go. "They don't know anything, Ava. It'll be fine. I'm just going in and out."

"In and out," I hope.